A power failure is causing major disruption and cancellations of train services across a large part of the rail network. National Rail has reported that trains across Greater Manchester, the Midlands, and the northwest of England have been cancelled or delayed by up to an hour.
The incident, reported shortly after 2pm, is due to an electricity supply failure at one of the network's communications centres. Disruption is expected to continue until the end of the day.
Train companies affected by the disruption include Avanti West Coast, East Midlands, Northern, TransPennine Express, and Transport for Wales. Northern Rail has advised customers not to travel, stating that services are unable to run on multiple lines in the northwest of England. East Midlands Rail services between Sheffield and Liverpool Lime Street are also unable to run on the Liverpool Lime Street, Nottingham, and Norwich routes.
In Greater Manchester, rail ticket acceptance is in place across all Metrolink lines and Bee Network bus services for affected rail passengers.